Mike Atherton
Michael Andrew Atherton
Born: 23 March 1968, Failsworth, Manchester, Lancashire
Major Teams: Cambridge University, Lancashire, England.
Known As: Mike Atherton
Pronounced: Mike Atherton
Batting Style: Right Hand Bat
Bowling Style: Leg Break
Test Debut: England v Australia at Nottingham, 5th Test, 1989
Latest Test: England v Australia at The Oval, 5th Test, 2001
ODI Debut: England v India at Leeds, Texaco Trophy, 1990
Latest ODI: England v Sri Lanka at Lord's, Emirates Triangular Tournament, 1998
First-Class Debut: 1987
Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1991
Career Statistics:
TESTS
(including 23/08/2001)
M I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 115 212 7 7728 185* 37.69 37.31 16 46 83 0
O M R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ
Bowling 68 12 302 2 151.00 1-20 0 0 204.0 4.44
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS
(including 20/08/1998)
M I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 54 54 3 1791 127 35.11 58.64 2 12 15 0
O M R W Ave BBI 4w 5w SR Econ
Bowling - - - - - - - - - -
FIRST-CLASS
(1987 - 2001)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 336 584 47 21929 268* 40.83 54 107 268 0
O M R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ
Bowling 1496.5 288 4733 108 43.82 6-78 3 0 83.1 3.16
LIST A LIMITED OVERS
(1987 - 2001)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 287 279 23 9343 127 36.49 14 59 111 0
O R W Ave BBI 4w 5w SR Econ
Bowling 135.2 711 24 29.62 4-42 1 0 33.8 5.25
- Explanations of First-Class and List A status courtesy of the ACS.
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Profile:
A product of Manchester Grammar School, where he was captain for three
years, Mike Atherton's potential was spotted early and he captained England
Under-19 aged just 16. He toured with England Young Cricketers to Sri Lanka
in 1986-87, and to Australia in 1987-88, while studying at Cambridge
(earning a 2/1 in History) and winning a blue in 1987, 1988 and 1989. In his
first game for Cambridge University he made 73 not out, from a total of 135
against an Essex side led by the then England captain, Graham Gooch. 109*
out of 185 against Derby followed, and it was no surprise when he made his
Lancashire debut in 1987, aged just 19, and became the first player to hit
1000 runs in debut season since Paul Parker in 1976. Unusually, he captained
Cambridge for two years, and led the Combined Universities to a
quarter-final place in the Benson and Hedges Cup in the year he also won his
county cap, 1989.
Atherton was born in Manchester in March 1968, and has retained a
Lancashire burr throughout his career. Six feet tall and right-handed, he
made his Test debut against Australia at Old Trafford aged 21 in 1989. He
began with a duck but made the top score of 47 in the second innings as
England were beaten by an innings. He did enough to earn a winter tour with
England A to Zimbabwe, and his first Test century came in just his third
Test, the first of the following summer (1990) against New Zealand (151 at
Trent Bridge), to make him the youngest-ever Lancastrian centurion. Another,
against India (138) later in the summer at Old Trafford, established him as
a member of the Test side and made him just the second Lancastrian to hit a
Test century at Old Trafford. He won The Cricket Writers' Young Cricketer of
the Year Award at the end of the 1990 season and was made a Wisden Cricketer
of the Year in early 1991. A slightly disappointing tour of Australia
followed (1990-91), although a century at Sydney followed by 87 at Adelaide
were bright points. He struggled against the West Indies the following
summer (1991), averaging under 10, and although he was selected for the
England tour to New Zealand and the A tour to Bermuda and the West Indies,
an operation on his back injury subsequently ruled him out.
Atherton's Test comeback was against Pakistan, and two half-centuries
ensured his inclusion on the trip to India. He was overlooked for all but
the final Test in India however, and ignored for the one-day games too,
though he did play in Sri Lanka. Innings of 80 and 99 (run out) at Lord's in
the second Ashes Test next summer (1993), followed by 55 and 63 at Leeds in
the Fourth Test as England were outplayed by Australia, were enough to
convince the selectors that he was the man to take over from Graham Gooch,
who resigned as England captain after the Leeds Test. Atherton was just 25
years old. The promotion seemed instantly to improve his batting, and
although another defeat followed at Edgbaston, a dramatic win in the final
Test at The Oval restored some credibility and ended the summer on a happy
note.
Taking a young side to the West Indies, Atherton showed bravery at the
crease and fortitude as captain. In the end the trip could only be judged as
a heroic failure as England succumbed 3-1. He led from the front though,
typically when scoring 144 in the first innings in Georgetown, as his team
subsided around him to lose the game by an innings. Worse was to come in
Trinidad; England earned a victory target of 194 only to be swept aside by a
rampant Ambrose for 46. The sense of shock and anti-climax was palpable, but
Atherton re-grouped his men and led them to what was only the second-ever
Test victory over the West Indies in Barbados, where his opening partnership
of 171 with Alec Stewart (who hit centuries in both innings) reset the
desired tone after the debacle of Trinidad.
A century in the final Test of the series and another two in the first
and third Tests of the next summer, against New Zealand, seemed to herald a
golden spell, but all that was endangered by an episode at Lord's in a Test
against South Africa. Television cameras caught the young England captain
rubbing dirt from his pocket on to the ball, and amid allegations of
ball-tampering he was fined £2000 by the match referee, Peter Burge.
Atherton claimed that it was to aid grip on a warm day, which is not,
strictly speaking, against the rules, but he was fined £1000 for that and
the other £1000 for providing a less than full explanation when originally
questioned by Burge.
Amid widespread calls for his resignation or dismissal (one of them,
bizarrely, from the Chairman of the Headmaster's Conference) Atherton stuck
to his guns, scored 99 in the next Test (at Leeds) and oversaw a
series-levelling victory at The Oval (as Devon Malcolm took 9-57), though he
was also fined for showing dissent after his first innings, first ball
dismissal. A mistrust of the media ensued, earning Atherton the sobriquet
'Captain Grumpy' for his reserved performances at subsequent press
conferences. He won the Cornhill Player of the Year award in 1994.
Leading the side on the Ashes tour of 1994-95, Atherton's team were
simply outplayed in all but the Adelaide Test (he had formed a formidable
opening partnership with Gooch who retired after that tour; sharing 16
stands over 50 in 34 innings with 9 past 100 and three over 200), but
performed well to draw the subsequent home series with the West Indies where
he scored another century at Trent Bridge, something of a happy hunting
ground for him.
An epic, back-to-the-wall, 643 minute, 185* v SA at Johannesburg
(1995-96) (the fourth longest Test innings ever at the time) was perhaps his
defining innings. Battling for a team facing defeat, against a hostile
attack including Donald and Pollock, he defied everything thrown at him to
save the Test. Ray Illingworth referred to the innings as one of the best
ever and Atherton was by now viewed as one of the most obdurate and valuable
batsmen in the world, and certainly the key wicket for any opposition as he
scored more than 1,000 Test runs during 1995. However a sloppy day's cricket
in the final Test sentenced his team to another narrow series loss, and an
ever-widening split between captain and manager, Ray Illingworth became
apparent. The age difference was certainly a factor, but a difference in
culture and outlook was equally relevant as the pair saw little common
ground and formed an increasingly unhappy working relationship. The
performance in the 1996 World Cup was an embarrassment as the team looked
poorly prepared and tactically bankrupt.
With David Lloyd taking over as coach for the Indian tour of 1996, and
David Graveney as Chairman of Selectors at the end of that summer, a happier
environment was created, and England won the series against India (with
Atherton hitting another century - 160 at Trent Bridge) before losing to
Pakistan.
Failure to win in Zimbabwe was magnified by the emotional nature of the
new coach's pronouncements to the media, but a 2-0 series victory in New
Zealand was fair consolation. In the third Test at Christchurch Atherton
carried his bat for 94 as England barely managed to keep in contention,
before his second innings 118 saw his side to a four-wicket win. By now his
performance was the prerequisite of a respectable total; if he failed it was
rare that England set a competitive score. The burden must have been immense
but the Lancastrian never buckled and did all that could have been asked of
him. Remarkable powers of concentration, perhaps born of a stubborn streak,
allied to a good technique (when fit and in form) against all types of
bowling were the bedrock of his consistency. He possessed all the shots, the
fallibility of the English batting during his career convinced him of the
need to limit his strokeplay, and it is as a defensive player that he will
be remembered.
Atherton's period of captaincy was marked by the occasional remarkable
victory, about once every series, but no sustained improvement. Typically,
England began the 1997 Ashes series with a victory over a very strong
Australia with Atherton undefeated on 57 at the moment of victory. The
tourists hit back with a vengeance though, and England lost three Tests in a
row before another remarkable win against the odds at The Oval. Atherton's
own form disintegrated under the assault of Glenn McGrath in particular, and
there was little improvement in the West Indies. He was awarded a benefit
and an OBE in 1997, but at the end of the season he offended many by
commenting that county cricket "served no purpose." His comments did
highlight the need for a restructuring of the domestic game.
Atherton was rarely secure in the one-day international side despite a
wonderful innings of 127 against the West Indies (Lord's 1995), and the
selectors finally made the decision to appoint separate captains for the
Tests and one-day internationals. Although he took the decision graciously,
there was a feeling that his Test position was undermined by his exclusion
from the one-day side. It was a strange time to make a change; England had
just beaten Australia 3-0 and Atherton scored 113* in the second game. Adam
Hollioake was the first to take over the one-day team, and a place was
rarely found for Atherton thereafter. He only played in one more one-day
international; perhaps the victim of a desire for "pinch-hitting" and
one-day "bits and pieces" specialists. In that final game he put on 132 with
Nick Knight, a record against Sri Lanka for the opening wicket.
A degenerative back condition (inherited from his father whose
professional football career was prematurely ended by it) scuppered a
promising leg-spin bowling career. It is often forgotten that Atherton took
over 100 first-class wickets with a best of 6-78 (against Nottinghamshire in
1990). As it became clear that his cricket career would be ended prematurely
by the injury, he took increasingly to writing about the game.
Many of the factors that helped Nasser Hussain to rebuild England had
been set in motion, or suggested, by Atherton. Central contracts, pitches
designed to suit the England team make-up and the stubborn refusal to give
in were all traits of the Atherton reign, but whether he was a victim of his
time or of his own tactical and personal inflexibility, it is hard to say.
His resignation as captain after England lost another hard-fought series in
the West Indies 3-1 produced an emotional response from a team that felt
they had let him down. He had overtaken Peter May's record of captaining
England in the most Tests, and led them in 54 matches altogether.
Back in the ranks, Atherton returned to form dramatically against the
excellent South African attack in the English summer of 1998, beginning with
103 at Edgbaston. It was his effort at Trent Bridge, though, that will be
remembered for ever by all those who witnessed it. Facing Allan Donald at
his fastest and best, Atherton withstood a fearful barrage to take England
to a series-equalling victory with 98*. An appeal for caught behind that the
batsman may well have been lucky to survive spurred Donald to new levels of
hostility, and produced as gripping an encounter as could ever be wished
for. England eventually achieved a rare series win, and Atherton finished
with an average of over 50.
Hindered by his back problem (and Glenn McGrath) Atherton struggled in
Australia on the subsequent Ashes tour, and was forced to miss the final
Test after a pair in Melbourne and a run of 62 consecutive Tests. The injury
also ruled him out of the 1999 World Cup squad, and the first two Tests
against New Zealand that year. He did manage to hit his highest first-class
score during the summer though, 268* against Glamorgan at Blackpool to win
back his Test place. Returning to South Africa, he recorded a pair in the
first Test as England were beaten by an innings, before returning to form
with a century in the second.
Atherton won an England central contract for 2000 (Band A), and having
hit a century in the two Test series against Zimbabwe, made his 100th Test
appearance against the West Indies at Old Trafford in 2000, in the same game
as Alec Stewart, whom his career ran alongside. In a series played on green
pitches, bowlers dominated but Atherton's century in the final Test at The
Oval was instrumental in his side winning the game and taking their first
home series against the West Indies since 1969.
Atherton performed reliably throughout the tour of Pakistan, batting for
almost 10 hours for a match-winning 125 in Karachi as England pulled off a
remarkable Test and series win for the first time since 1961-2. After a
short break for Christmas, England returned to the sub-continent and their
first full tour of Sri Lanka. Atherton was somewhat subdued with the bat in
Sri Lanka, where Chaminda Vaas caused him problems, but contributed several
important opening stands with Marcus Trescothick, his 13th opening partner
for England. England completed their fourth consecutive series win with a
comeback from 1-0 down to win the final two Tests; the first time they had
managed such a feat since 1888. Atherton was rewarded with another central
contract for 2001.
The summer proved to be one of Atherton's less successful. He managed one
half-century in the drawn two-match series against Pakistan and then
encountered his bete noir, Glenn McGrath, with the visit of Australia. His
old adversary captured his wicket six times as Atherton managed just two
half-centuries in the five match series, which England lost 4-1. He totalled
just 221 runs in ten innings during England's uphill struggle. Atherton took
over the captaincy for the second and third Tests because of injury to
skipper Nasser Hussain, but was on the losing side on both occasions.
Shortly after the final game at The Oval, Atherton announced his
retirement from first-class cricket. His long-time England teammate Alec
Stewart was among the first to pay tribute, describing him in his CricInfo
diary as "a great player for England over the years". Stewart also praised
Atherton for his courage in coping with his back problem, which prevented
him from seeing out the season with Lancashire. "Many people with such a
condition would have packed up playing long ago," Stewart wrote. Shortly
after the end of the season, Channel 4 Television hired Atherton as a
summeriser for home Test matches. (Copyright CricInfo September 2001)
Photo: Clive Mason/ALLSPORT
Last Updated: Wednesday, 04-Sep-2002 09:07:46 GMT
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